Under the “Taxpayer Bill of Rights” (TABOR, which actually sounds more like the name of a Killer Alien Robot in a bad 50s SF movie), Colorado state government has very tight restrictions on tax increases and mandating refunds of any surpluses. The city of Colorado Springs, the home of TABOR and Doug Bruce, its creator (cue mad scientist music) has even tighter ordinances on spending. And all of this continues in the face of dropping tax revenues.
El Paso County’s budget has shed $45 million over the past three years, clipped by the generosity of past tax-cutting county commissioners, stretched by the demands of a surging population and perpetually in the sights of limited-government forces. […]
The impacts are widespread:
• For years, the health department has lacked the staff to inspect restaurants and other food providers twice a year, as required by state law. Department director Kandi Buckland said it’s no coincidence that “in 2008, preliminary data showed El Paso County had the largest number of food-borne illness” in the state.
• The health department has stopped inspecting day-care centers and won’t inspect swimming pools this summer. That might make swimmers queasy, considering that last year, the department closed 80 pools — including six contaminated with E. coli.
• The Sheriff’s Office has the same number of patrol deputies it had in 1998, when there were 70,000 fewer residents. In some parts of the county, it takes deputies 22 minutes — more than double the ideal time — to arrive when someone calls 911.
• Most county offices are closed on Friday.
• When gas prices peaked last summer, Sheriff Terry Maketa ordered patrol cars parked. Deputies stopped cruising and instead waited for calls to come in. DUI arrests plummeted.
• The coroner’s office, where space is so cramped that human-tissue samples are stored in a garage behind the main building, has only four investigators. Two of them have to be on duty at all times.
• The city of Colorado Springs has cut 173 jobs since December — out of a workforce that once numbered 632.
• The county clerk’s office employs the same number of people it did in 1994. That partially explains the recent dust-up when County Clerk Robert Balink was accused of telling staff not to answer the phones. Actually, according to county spokesman Dave Rose, the phone-bank staff who used to answer those calls were laid off, and remaining staff are swamped.
(Emphasis mine.)
Despite that, Doug Bruce is convinced that government is lighting their expensive barbecues with rolled-up thousand dollar bills.
“I know how much money they waste,” Bruce said. He writes about that topic on his website, which includes a 42-item list of what he calls wasteful county spending.
“They’re pouring money out like it’s a broken fire hydrant,” said the former county commissioner, who disputes the notion that the county budget is shrinking.
He also questions the need to pay county staff so much and for paid vacations. “Why are we paying people to have a vacation?”
Maybe we can all take up a collection to send Bruce off on a vacation.
That said, this is democracy in action. County and city taxpayers have refused to pay for anything extra, and the comments to the article quoted above are straight from the libertarian workbook (“Public Schools are not essential government. Neither are libraries in the Internet age, scientific research in the era of private research, and many others. County government has these basic purposes: roads and infrastructure, law enforcement, and elections. Everything else is unnecessary and excessive”).
Yeah, I read this over breakfast Sunday and…yeah…
The best part is the chart showing what the Metro Counties collect in Taxes.
El Paso: Property tax Per Person – $64, Local Tax Per Person – $189.
Boulder: Property tax Per Person – $422, Local Tax Per Person – $536.
This goes along with the Springs closing 9 schools for next year.
Thank GOD that Wisconsin managed to fight off the forces of TABOR. What a train wreck.
Part of me just wishes them luck and hopes the last person who survives in the desolate wasteland-to-be turns off the lights when done. But … jeez.
Not that a healthy level of skepticism and accountability over the government and taxation and spending isn’t necessary. But being way out on the fringe in this way is as destructive as being the stereotype “tax and spend liberal” cartoon.
As someone who works in State Government, I’m sick to death of government being framed as the villain by GOP Legislators.
Most of the State’s fiscal issues can be DIRECTLY traced to GOP legislation that didn’t consider the long term effects of what they did (I point out the so called Truth in Sentencing laws as an example).
Is there room fo improvement in the way governments operate? Yup, you bet. The main difference in how the Public sector works vs the Private sector is that the Public Sector can’t hide bad fiscal decisions in corporate reports. IF there’s a project with a 10% overrun in the private sector it’s a ‘cost of doing business.’ In the Public sector it’s a ‘gross waste of taxpayer monies.’ Grrrrr.